"A WHILE AGO, I had occasion to
reflect on this relationship: I was the man who framed Ziggy Stardust, and who, one
singular afternoon, not so many manic years later realised that, in the end, Ziggy
Stardust had framed me. I was only the camera eye, but my vision would never be the
same again ... " - Mick Rock

Oftenreferred
to as "The Man Who Shot the Seventies", legendary rock and roll photographer
Mick Rock first met David Bowie in early 1972. Most of the wonderful images of David Bowie
as Ziggy Stardust on this web-site were shot by Mick Rock in his capacity as the
"official" Bowie photographer.

"WHEN I first met Bowie he was a London
camp/cult figure, best known, if at all, for wearing a dress on an album jacket (the
original UK cover to The Man Who Sold The World). Nobody I knew was familiar with
him or his music. By chance I heard a cast-off promotional copy of Hunky-
Dory. From the first it excited me like few records ever had, and then there was the
face on the cover ... I tried to convince the London editor of Rolling Stone magazine to
commission a photo feature on Bowie. He agreed to submit it to the U.S. editors, but
he couldn't guarantee they'd run it or pay me. It didn't matter, I had my
excuse. The first thing David Bowie ever said to me was: 'I like your name.' I
thought he had an excellent name too. The difference, it transpired, was that mine
was given - while his was assumed, which didn't prevent us from having many tastes in
common - from Syd Barrett to the Velvet Underground, Jacques Brel to Jean-Louis Barrault
... This would be the beginning of a fascinating two year relationship with Bowie
and Ziggy Stardust which would produce promo films, album jackets, posters, artwork,
interviews and several thousand still photos." - Mick Rock

A Photographic Record: 1969-1980

Rock was instrumental in creating many other key rock 'n' roll images
such as Lou Reed's Transformer, Iggy Pop's Raw Power and Queen's Queen
II. Mick Rock has continued to capture the musical spirit of succeeding eras through
his work with musicians of the 1980's and 90's. His work is the subject of a
recently published book A Photographic Record: 1969-1980- a 130-page portfolio from Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett in 1969 to Lou Reed in 1980
featuring over forty pictures of David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust in between.

Michael David Rock was born in west London
and earned a scholarship to Cambridge where he studied modern languages, graduating in the
late sixties. It was the expressive seduction of subversive poets of yore rather that
finite imagery that encouraged Rock to explore his own creative expression. "I
discovered the lives and works of the great Bohemian poets, like Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and
Nerval. They were my heroes".

"London in the late sixties and
early seventies was a hotbed of creative interchange. The prevalent hippie philosophy
united all manner of artists, musicians, film makers, models, designers, actors, writers,
and photographers into a unique and fertile community. My timing was excellent. Curiosity
and circumstance drew me into the flame of rock n roll." - Mick Rock

Rock became intensely interested in the artists and
performers at the cutting edge of their time who were not afraid to cross the line. He was
soon travelling back and forth between London and New York, on tour with emerging artists
such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. In 1977 he moved permanently to New York just in time to
sense the importance of the bustling New Wave scene.

Mick Rock's Ziggy Stardust 1972/1973 Photo-book (1984)

"This was quite controversial at
the time. Although that shot was always seen with most of the background cropped out by
publishers. I really prefer the image presented in its full frame." - Mick
Rock (1999)

"This was actually a press conference. RCA
flew in a lot of journalists from America because David was planning this tour for the
fall of 1972 and the idea was to generate some press. David was starting to be a big deal
in England and Lou and Iggy had both recently arrived and obviously they were invited for
part of the flavoring of things. They were just David's friends - Mick Ronson, the
Spiders, the management people, the wife Angela, Iggy, Lou, my ex-wife Sheila were there.
There weren't that many of us, maybe a dozen in all. And a couple of people from Tony
DeFries' [Bowie's manager] office. It was tea time at the Dorchester Hotel. You can see it
was mostly for the American press. David also used this opportunity to get Lou and Iggy
out and parade them around. Maybe in his excitement for their work which is an excitement
we both shared. When I first met David there were three people we talked about. One was
Iggy, one was Lou; the other one was Syd Barrett. So we kind of swapped stories. I swapped
him Syd Barrett stories and he swapped tales of Iggy and Lou. So that was probably the
first bonding with David when we found a certain taste in common. It tended to me the more
esoteric and extreme variety, these two of course among the manifestation of exactly that
attitude and philosophy. But it was teatime, daylight hours and we're all in the very
expensive room at the Dorchester. But I did take this picture. I knew I was gonna get this
picture no matter what happened. I was not letting anybody out until I got a shot of the
three of them together. At the time it wasn't really a big deal. Because David was just
breaking and just starting to garner a lot of attention and Iggy and Lou were still
underground figures. But for me, this was a very important moment and it remains an
important shot. That's the only time the three of them were in a photograph together. And
of course Iggy was wearing a T-Rex t-shirt. And he's got a pack of Lucky Strike in his
mouth. It just happened. That was just one of those great fortuitous things..... David was
doing what he always did. He kept changing clothes. That was his thing. He's always
changing clothes. We were all very young. I mean, we were no longer teenagers but David
was about 25, I was 24, Iggy was 23. Lou's the oldest. He might have been 28, 29. We were
all in our twenties." - Mick Rock (1999)